


Midnight Conversations

by Yoselin



Series: Ride or Die (Choices) [2]
Category: Choices: Ride or Die, Choices: Stories You Play
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-01
Updated: 2019-04-01
Packaged: 2019-12-30 06:48:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18310346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yoselin/pseuds/Yoselin
Summary: Premise: MC converses with Colt about their fathers.Name used: Kelsie Winchester, ROD MC.





	Midnight Conversations

A lone light drifts from the kitchen in the middle of the night. Kelsie rubs at the back of her neck sleepily as she walks towards it. It’s half past midnight and everyone has gone to sleep by now in preparation for tomorrow’s big heist. The entire auto body shop is dead silent except for the sounds of someone shuffling a paper back and forth.  
Having not been able to sleep, Kelsie had opted for a quick glass of water and maybe a midnight snack. Apparently, someone else had the same idea.  
The kitchen is lit by a lone lamp when she enters, her tired eyes see someone bent over the counter with a long piece of paper in hand. Kelsie rubs at her eyes and squints to make out the figure sitting on a stool.  
“Colt?” She tilts her head and makes out his outline. He isn’t wearing his leather jacket and his hair is mussed from sleep. He looks up at the sound of his name.  
“Kelsie? What are you doing up?” He narrows his eyes at her and pauses mid sentence. A blue print is spread before him and he is sketching something out in blue ink. Kelsie can just make out some shapes and coordinates in the dim light.  
“I should ask you the same thing,” she retorts, “It’s midnight.”  
Almost surprised, Colt glances at the stove. A digital clock built in reads 12:37 in big blue letters. He says nothing yet Kelsie doesn’t miss the way a part of him tenses in exhaustion.  
He’s been up all night, she realizes. His hair is mussed from tossing and turning, his eyes are tired from the lack of sleep, and his everyday clothes look rumpled. It seems like Colt hasn’t fared any better at rest, and a part of Kelsie is relieved she isn’t the only one having trouble sleeping.  
“Can’t sleep?” Colt drily asks her. He looks down at the blueprint he’s marking up yet makes no move to add any more markings. Perhaps he’s so tired he can hardly think straight.  
Kelsie moves to the cupboards and fills a glass with tap water. She bites down on her bottom lip and sighs. Her body is tired yet her brain is running at a million miles. She hasn’t been able to sleep despite hours of trying.  
“Nope,” she breathes out, “And I’m guessing you can’t either?”  
Without waiting for invitation, she takes a seat next to him on the counter. He has a glass of water set aside for himself as well and an opened bag of chips, a midnight snack. He slides it over to her silently and sets his pen down.  
Up close, Kelsie can make out the diagrams for a car plant. Colt has mapped out escape routes, scribbled messy notes next to dots, and highlighted some paths that could better fit her car. He seems to be taking the entire job seriously and his fingers are stained with ink from writing everywhere.  
Colt traces a finger down the blueprints when he catches her eye. It’s a yellow highlighted path with her name written to the side. Kelsie recognizes it as the stretch of tunnel she will be driving tomorrow.  
A ball of nervousness in her stomach twists at the idea. She really has changed so much. Pre-Logan Kelsie would never even entertain a movie about criminals and heists, too busy studying for SATs and working on her Langston application, but post-Logan Kelsie willingly agreed to commit robbery.  
The thought makes her almost dizzy and she bites the inside of her cheek. Her father was right then, she really has changed so much.  
“I have to make sure everything goes smoothly tomorrow,” Colt cuts off her train of thought, “My dad is trusting me with this job and I can’t mess it up. I’ve been studying the entire plant making sure it all goes off without a hitch. You go in through these tunnels and evade these cameras. It’ll be quick.”  
Kelsie says nothing and feels another pinprick of unease hit her. Her mind flashes back to her dad and her head begins to ache. Their entire argument plays itself over and she looks away busying herself with taking a drink of water.  
He was right not to trust her, she realizes, look at where she’s ended up without him. Rather than staying up late finishing the mountain of AP Literature homework she no doubt has, she’s plotting a robbery at a car plant for a gang of thieves she’s joined. The very thought is almost too crazy to consider.  
“You’re nervous about the job?” She asks just as a distraction. She steals a few chips from his bag.  
It takes Colt a moment to respond. In the dim lights, he almost looks uncomfortable.  
“This is everything I’ve ever wanted. I always imagined my dad and I working together in the family business. This is my family, my blood, my birthright, I always wanted to be here. My dad is finally letting me in and I want to make sure everything goes off well. If we screw things up tomorrow, he will never let me back in.”  
The blueprint is rolled up tightly and Colt secures it with a rubber band. He holds it tightly in his grip as if worried he’ll lose it otherwise. Kelsie can almost hear the various gears turning in his head.  
Her own thoughts whirr. She’s a part of this heist, a member of the crew, and everything could go massively wrong tomorrow. She could be arrested and lose everything; her chance at valedictorian, her acceptance to Langston-  
Her father.  
Another little twinge of pain. Kelsie runs a hand through her hair and looks out the window. The moon is bright in the sky casting them in its soft light. She focuses on that and takes a deep breath.  
“I get what you mean, sort of,” she bites her lip, “We both want to prove something to our dads.”  
Colt wants to prove himself worthy of his last name and family legacy while Kelsie wants to prove...Well...she’s not quite sure what she’s intent on proving. Perhaps she means to prove to her dad that she can hold her own, that she’s independent, or that she’s capable of being her own person.  
Colt snorts beside her and strums the rubber band around the blueprints.  
“Isn’t that lame? We worry too much about what they think.”  
His voice is self deprecating, eyes distant, and he stares down at the paper as if it were an enigma. For all his confidence and swagger, even he has to admit he has a weakness.  
Kelsie stares at him in the moon’s light. The moon casts handsome shadows over his face and brings him into focus. She can see the way his eyes are unfocused, blurred to thought, and the way his jaw works as he tightens it.  
She leans back in her chair and stares hard at the table. There’s grooves there from scuff and use, she skims her fingers over them.  
“Why do we worry so much?” The question spills from her lips before she can stop it. “All my life I wanted my dad to be proud of me, but I never really thought about why.”  
And she really had never thought about it. Her schoolwork was for herself, she believed in challenging yesterday’s Kelsie to make tomorrow’s Kelsie better, but why had she always held her breath when her dad read over her report card? Why weren’t her own thoughts enough? Why did she worry so much about what he thought? Were kids just conditioned to seek validation from caretakers? Was it an integral part of their DNA that drove them? An instinct that pushed them?  
The corners of Colt’s lips pull up in a sardonic smile.  
“ ‘Cause we both had a pair of shitty fathers,” he leans back in his chair, “My dad never gave a crap about me and pushed me and my mom away every chance he got, and your dad put you on a pedestal and forgot you weren’t just his prized doll. We both hit the jackpot on the parent lottery.”  
He rolls his eyes and sets the blueprints down. Kelsie stares down at her water glass and watches as the water sloshes around its sides.  
He’s right and a part of her doesn’t like that.  
After everything that’s happened, everything that she’s lived these past few weeks, she has to admit Colt is right. She was on a golden pedestal her father put her on, was a doll for him to show off to his coworkers, and obeyed every rule like a marionette. She never truly lived for herself, not really, she just existed and let herself be tugged by a series of strings her father wielded.  
The thought makes her shiver to herself. Her eyes begin to sting and she blinks it back. The last thing she wants to do is cry in front of Colt.  
“Guess we both have daddy issues,” she rubs at her eyes to clear them.  
Silence reigns over them both as they each digest their conversation. Colt’s jaw is tight and he drums his fingers over the kitchen table.  
His walls are down tonight, Kelsie notices, and he’s definitely more human than usual. They’ve almost gone the entire time without a sarcastic retort or joke at her expense.  
Progress.  
Colt suddenly sits up straight and swears under his breath. “Fuck this.”  
He stands abruptly and runs a hand through his hair. His back is tense and his eyes are like thunder in the moonlight. He seems frustrated, agitated, and his body bristles with energy.  
“We shouldn’t care about them,” he paces the length of the kitchen, “This should be for us. Christ, who cares what they think? Screw them.”  
Kelsie stands as well and her own jaw tightens. A part of her comes alive with his words. Colt’s right and she knows it.  
She recalls his words from some time ago, when he had been teaching her to drift before her driver’s test.  
“It doesn’t matter who else believes in us, right? We have to believe in ourselves?”  
Despite the worry in her, despite the exhaustion, the corners of her lips turn up in a smile. A light has been lit inside her, something that makes everything else make sense, and she bites back her grin.  
A smirk plays on Colt’s lips. Its confident, attractive, and so very Colt that Kelsie feels a blush spread across her face. He looks good when he smiles, he should do it more often.  
“Exactly right, whoever told you that was a genius.”  
She playfully rolls her eyes and pretends to be put off by the idea. “Nah, I think he’s full of hot air but every now and again he has a good idea on accident.”  
Colt snorts under his breath and sends her a glare that’s not malicious in the slightest. He moves for the blueprints and snatches them up in his hand. Without even missing a beat, he tosses it on a random section of the room where more documents and papers are discarded. It seems he is done working himself up over tomorrow.  
“I don’t know about you, but I’m done trying to please my dad. Tomorrow shouldn’t be about him, it should be about me. I want to do a good job, I want to prove myself capable.”  
Kelsie raises her own chin.  
“And you will. Believe in yourself and who cares what Kaneko thinks?” She squares her jaw, “My dad was wrong about me, you know. I’m not a child, I just want a different path than the one he set out for me. He never trusted me to make my own choices, but now I’m going my own way. I’m living my life for me. Finally.”  
Her fist clenches at her side and her sleeve tattoo stands out. Her dad would faint if he saw it, but she loves it. Ximena was right, tattoos were perfect for expressing oneself.  
Colt regards her then, giving her a long look, and there’s almost the spark of something in his gaze. He seems to be taking her in, evaluating everything, and Kelsie feels just a little nervous. Finally, he finishes his evaluation and smirks.  
“You know, you’re not that bad, Winchester.”  
Kelsie shorts. “A glowing review from Colt Kaneko. Let me update my resume.”  
She nudges his side with her elbow but it’s impossible to hide her grin. Lately, she and Colt have been getting along better and better. There’s something there between them, flourishing slowly but surely, and she’s definitely interested in seeing what’ll develop. They’ve come a long way from their first meeting at the sideshow, she’s definitely excited to see how far they can go.  
And maybe Colt is too because there’s something almost fond in the way he takes her in. The air between them sparks with an energy that is felt by the two of them. It seems he is also aware of something building.  
They stay like that for a while before the clock chirps signaling an hour change. It’s 1 am now, they’ve been talking for a while.  
The time draws them apart, Kelsie yawns into her hand and remembers how late it is. They should definitely sleep before the big job. Kaneko would not appreciate her dozing off while driving the getaway car.  
“I should head back,” Kelsie remembers Logan still asleep in her borrowed bed and a part of her twinges with guilt. She’s sharing a bed with Logan, perhaps she should remind herself of that fact. Something may be developing between her and Colt, but she still has Logan waiting for her up in his room. She bites her lip and swings her arms, “But...goodnight, Colt.”  
She sets her glass in the sink and moves out of the kitchen. Her head feels a little clearer now, maybe she will finally sleep.  
Colt regards her as he leaves. There’s something on his mind too, perhaps he is dwelling about the same thing as Kelsie, yet he nods.  
“Goodnight, Kelsie...and remember...screw them.”  
Kelsie hangs by the doorway and nods. Something passes between them then and the two teens with daddy issues find a common ground of understanding. They’re both products of bad parents, alone in the world, but alone together.  
“...Screw them.”


End file.
